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Sports of The Times; When All of America Skated on Golden Pond

TWENTY years later, Ken Morrow remembered how his United States Olympic teammates jumped over the boards to celebrate Mike Eruzione's go-ahead goal against the Soviet Union, but Morrow, the bearded defenseman who would be on the Islanders' four consecutive Stanley Cup champions, stared at the scoreboard clock.

''Mike scored with exactly 10 minutes to go,'' recalled Morrow, now the Islanders' pro scouting director. ''I thought how this is going to be the longest 10 minutes of our lives. The Russians were capable of scoring five or six goals in 10 minutes.''

But when the Americans completed their

4-3 upset of the Soviets on Feb. 22, 1980, in the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, it changed how United States hockey and its players were perceived and appreciated. To many historians, the ''Miracle on Ice'' was the most memorable single American sports event of the 20th century.

That hockey game, like any really historic event, has stood the true test of time: people remember where they were when they saw it or heard about it. Wherever they were when the buzzer sounded in the Adirondack Mountains village's 8,500-seat Olympic field house, people all over America cheered.

America had needed something to cheer about. American hostages in Iran were still in the embassy there. Soviet troops had invaded Afghanistan. President Jimmy Carter was threatening an American boycott of the Olympic Summer Games in Moscow later that year. The Cold War with what President Ronald Reagan would call the ''evil empire'' was still being fought in the icy intrigue of international politics.

So this was more than just a hockey game, much more. This game had not involved merely the provincial pride of, say, a New York Yankees victory in the World Series or a Chicago Bulls victory for the pro basketball championship. This was for national honor; for the Soviets, too. Before the Soviet delegation left Moscow, the athletes gathered at a Kremlin reception.

''We were told,'' recalled Slava Fetisov, now a New Jersey Devils assistant coach but then a rookie Olympic defenseman on the Soviet team, '' 'You can lose to anybody but the United States.' ''

Nobody expected the Soviets to lose. They had won five of six previous Olympic tournaments. The year before, in a Challenge Cup series with the National Hockey League All-Stars, the same basic Soviet team had won two of the three games, including a 6-0 finale. In a pre-Olympic appearance at Madison Square Garden, the Soviets had strafed the Americans, 10-3.

Many N.H.L. observers considered the Soviets the world's best team at that time. In contrast, the seventh-seeded Americans, coached by Herb Brooks (on Olympic leave from the University of Minnesota), were mostly comprised of college players from Minnesota, Massachusetts, Michigan and Wisconsin. ''I thought we might win a bronze,'' Brooks acknowledged later.

In their Olympic opener, the Americans salvaged a 2-2 tie with third-seeded Sweden on goaltender Jim Craig's 34 saves and defenseman Bill Baker's goal with 27 seconds left. They then surprised second-seeded Czechoslovakia, 7-3, before dominating Norway, 5-1, Romania, 7-2, and West Germany, 4-2, to set up the showdown with the Soviets.

''Don't stand in awe,'' Brooks told his players before the 5 p.m. game that wouldn't be televised until 8 o'clock that Friday night. ''You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here.''

The Soviets took a 2-1 lead but with one second remaining in the first period, center Mark Johnson shot the puck past Vladislav Tretiak, the tall 27-year-old goaltender with the spiderlike arms and legs whom some N.H.L. talent appraisers rated the world's best.

Thinking the period had ended, the Soviets skated off, but the referee called them back for a meaningless face-off. When the Soviets reappeared, their goaltender was Vladimir Myshkin, the backup. When the second period began, Myshkin was still the goaltender.

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The great Tretiak had been benched by Viktor Tikhonov, the stern coach who also coached the Central Red Army team in Moscow, the core of the Soviet roster.

''Tikhonov was trying to shoot two birds with one arrow,'' Fetisov recalled. ''To win without Tretiak and to show how smart he was. He miscalculated.''

Johnson tied the score at 3-3 with a power-play goal in the third period. Later, the Americans were changing lines when Buzz Schneider came off early and Eruzione, hopping over the boards, found himself on a line with John Harrington and Mark Pavelich.

''Harrington gave me the puck inside the blue line,'' Eruzione said later. ''I shot, the defenseman screened the goaltender, and it went in.''

During the ''longest 10 minutes'' that ended with Craig making a total of 37 saves, the standing-room only crowd kept shouting ''U.S.A., U.S.A.'' and waving American flags. The Soviets, who would win the 1984 and 1988 gold medals, were in shock.

''Later on,'' Fetisov recalled with a smile, ''Herb Brooks told me, 'I'm glad it wasn't a best of seven.' ''

But to win the gold, the Americans had to defeat Finland on Sunday; if they lost, they would be fourth.

''Before practice on Saturday,'' recalled Brooks, now the Pittsburgh Penguins' coach, ''I told them: 'You were lucky. You're too young. You can't pull it off.' Halfway through practice I told them that again, and after practice I told them that again. I wanted to get them mad, and I could tell that I did.''

The Americans were not too young to pull it off, winning, 4-2, for the gold medal that changed the perception of young American hockey players. Suddenly the N.H.L. scouts realized they could play.

Eleven of the Olympians went on to the N.H.L., but their gold medals had already inspired a generation of American youngsters that had been watching television, notably Brian Leetch, Pat LaFontaine and Tony Amonte. Brooks also went on to the N.H.L., coaching the Rangers, the Minnesota North Stars and the Devils, but as a winning Olympic coach, he was not entitled to a gold medal. Only the players were.

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A version of this article appears in print on February 20, 2000, on Page 8008003 of the National edition with the headline: Sports of The Times; When All of America Skated on Golden Pond. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe